Highest injury rates found among jobs that require heavy lifting

Published: Tuesday, May 11, 1999

WASHINGTON (AP) Jobs that require heavy lifting are getting extra attention from safety officials because of high rates of injury and illness.

Nursing homes, trucking companies and warehouses led a list of nearly 12,500 workplaces where the number of days lost to job-related health problems convinced the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to suggest bosses examine how they might keep their employees healthy.

''It surprises a lot of people that nursing home work is one of the most dangerous occupations in America more dangerous than working in a coal mine or a steel mill,'' said Andrew L. Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union.

Employers on the receiving end of the special notices said they had been working on safety improvements for a long time, and noted they were targeted on the basis of 1997 data.

The OSHA notification letters, mailed in late April, were the result of answers to a mandatory 1997 survey of workplaces. Sites were selected for the special letters based on the number of employee days reported lost to work-related illness or injury. The construction industry, which accounts for nearly half of all OSHA inspections, was exempted because of the temporary nature of its work sites.

The program is OSHA's most extensive effort to reduce workplace hazards since a federal appeals court blocked the use of the agency's cooperative compliance program, under which employers with the highest injury rates could reduce their odds of being inspected by voluntarily adopting a safety program.

The appeals court agreed with business groups who argued that the compliance program was coercive. OSHA has not decided whether to appeal that ruling, but in the new round of notifications it struck a far more conciliatory tone.

''OSHA recognizes that an elevated lost workday illness and injury rate does not necessarily indicate a lack of interest in safety and health on the part of your business,'' its letter said.